San Francisco Mega-Project Sets the 'Affordable' Bar High

Cory Weinberg reports on the 5M mega-project on the way in San Francisco, after a key political victory that paved the way for its approval by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.

The victory came in the shape of an agreement to build more apartments "dedicated to middle class residents." The $690 million project will now become "the largest ever affordable housing commitment that a San Francisco developer has made for a project built on private land."

Weinberg explains how the development will achieve its affordability targets: "40 percent of the units that will get built as a part of the project won’t be priced at market rate, and they will range in affordability. For instance, some units at an off-site Tenderloin affordable building will be reserved for formerly homeless residents, while a family of four making $152,850 a year would qualify for one of the middle-income units at one of the Fifth and Mission buildings."

The key phrase in there is "range in affordability," exemplified by the $152,850 annual salary being considered in the range of affordable anywhere on this planet.

For more on the project, including pretty renderings and more on some of the political process that got the development to this point, Curbed SF has been following the project closely for months.